Fire Sensitivity of Casuarina torulosa in North Queensland, Australia

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Abstract
An examination of young Casuarina torulosa Ait. populations at two recently burned, wet sclerophyll woodland/savanna sites in North Queensland, Australia, showed that both consisted of a narrowly unimodal height-class structure containing a high proportion of resprouted stems. Stem mortality was virtually complete below modal scorch height in each stand, but decreased in stems above this height. A high proportion of plants with fire-killed stems had resprouted: those below 2 m in height did so by basal tillering, and those above this height did so epicormically. A growth chamber experiment showed little resprout capacity when seedling heights approximated 23 cm, but a much higher potential when heights approximated 42 cm. However, resprout capacity was rapidly lost after two subsequent burns at short intervals. These results suggest that this species maintains even-sized cohorts of young stems within sclerophyll woodland and savanna subject to moderate fire recurrence intervals by repeatedly resprouting basally. Occasional longer fire-free intervals permit passage of these cohorts beyond the fire-sensitive stage to form relatively dense stands of even-sized stems.

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